Scarlet Aura: Falling Sky

Melodic Hard Rock/Metal

4.0/5.0

One wonders what a whirlwind life Romania's Scarlet Aura has been living in the last two years. Formed in 2014, the won the Kavarna Rock Fest battle of the bands and cut their first album, The Rock Chick. Then they shared the stage with some massive talent including Europe, Helloween, Nazareth, Accept, Gotthard, Sabaton, Jorn, among many more. 2016 finds the band working with production legend Roy Z for their second album, Falling Sky, and then touring with legendary vocalist Tarja Turunen. Heads spin. With all this, and having never heard anything by Scarlet Aura, my first thought was: they better not suck.

Scarlet Aura

Well no, not by any means. First Scarlet Aura is a female-fronted band with Aura Danciulescu at the microphone. She has clean, sweet, melodic style, more a rock singer than operatic one. However, in the mix, she's overwhelmed by the music and often difficult to understand, making a CD booklet with lyrics necessary (but not provided to me in the EPK.)

After this, the Scarlet Aura sound could be described as melodic hard rock touched with a metal edge, but with some nuances. For instance, My Own Nightmare has a strong symphonic presence. Another song, Immortal In Your Eye, sways between metal, rock, and some synth pop thanks to some quirky keyboards. Chasing White Horse kindles elements of AOR melodic rock, just with a bit heavier edge. While beginning with light piano, the title track eventually builds to a riff heavy chugging song. The closest song to being mellow is You're Not Alone, but only because the music dials down and Ms Danciulescu rises. The song is also a fine example of the the soaring guitar solos that are found throughout the album, one of the best features here. Yet, I think my favorite song overall was Colour Blind simply for the uber-catchy chord structure, and stunning guitar solo.

Honestly, with the first spin of Falling Sky I was a bit ambivalent about Scarlet Aura, the whole "not another female-fronted rock band" thing happening. But the girl can sing, the songs rock, and there was enough variety and invention to keep me interested. Recommended.

Scarlet Aura - My Own Nightmare

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Honestly, with the first spin of Falling Sky I was a bit ambivalent about Scarlet Aura, the whole "not another female-fronted rock band" thing happening. But the girl can sing, the songs rock, and there was enough variety and invention to keep me interested. Recommended.

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